I love Grammar because it’s logic, it’s predictable (even the fact that there are exceptions in every rule is kind of predictable, right?) and you can use its patterns creatively to make many new sentences and start speaking.

I also love Grammar because it’s like a mystery game. Cool so far!

“The dark side of Grammar” is that it can easily absorb you in never ending rules and exceptions, then overwhelm you, make you feel kind of like “you know nothing, Jon Snow” and doubt yourself and your abilities.

Case #2 Investigation Level: Beginner

Helpful tip from our top secret informant: Mistakes around articles can vary; they can be related to:

the Grammar gender (masculine - feminine - neuter)

to the case (nominative - accusative - genitive) or

the number (singular - plural).

Sometimes mistakes are related to the kind of article we have; is it definite or indefinite? (ο / ένας, η / μία, το / ένα).

In some other cases, especially in spoken Greek, articles can even be completely absent.

Okay, now back to our first example.

Είμαι με ο Νίκος.

Our Grammar hint: When we have the preposition με we need the accusative case.

So what’s the correct way to say this?

Είμαι με τον Νίκο.

The second example has a transitive verb. If you didn’t skip the explanation on the transitive verbs above...amazing! Now you understand what that means. In case you skipped it, look for this clue above.

Βλέπω οι φίλοι και οι φίλες μου.

Our Grammar hint: Οbject words in sentences are always in accusative. (Okay, almost always. But you saw this exception coming, didn’t you?)

In addition, the words here are in plural so let’s keep that in mind when we try to switch the nominative to accusative.

So what’s the correct way to say this?

Βλέπω τους φίλους και τις φίλες μου.

Congratulations! Case #2: articles in accusative is now closed.

Hang in there Investigator! One more case to go before your well deserved donut break. (Guilty of watching too many police series back in the 90s. Is donut break actually a “thing”?)

Case #3 Investigation Level: Intermediate

What’s the mistake here? Can you guess?

Σταμάτησε να βρέξει.

Την είδε να έρθει.

Του αρέσει να ταξιδέψει σε πολλές χώρες.

Our Grammar hint: να + Present tense is used together with verbs indicating:

a start, continuity and end (such as αρχίζω, σταματάω, παύω, ξεκινάω, συνεχίζω, εξακολουθώ)

senses (such as ακούω, βλέπω, αισθάνομαι, παρακολουθώ) and

μου αρέσει, in all persons (σου αρέσει, της αρέσει etc)

The list is not exhaustive here and we definitely have more cases where να + Present tense is used. However, the verbs above tend to confuse most Greek learners so I’m thrilled you now know them.